Wife or Death by Ellery Queen Read Free Book Online

newspaperman, wasn’t he?
    Who could the guy be? He was positively somebody who had attended the Wyatts’ party after the club dance.
    Denton ran through the candidates. Matthew Fallon seemed the likeliest.
    He phoned the cartoonist’s home; Fallon worked at home.
    The voice answering the phone was Fallon’s.
    â€œOh, hi, Jim,” the cartoonist said. “What’s up?”
    â€œJust looking for news. Heard you’re taking off for New York.”
    â€œMe?” Fallon said in surprise. “That’s news, all right. To me.”
    â€œYou’re not going anywhere?”
    â€œNope.”
    â€œOkay, Matt. Just checking it out. See you.”
    â€œSure,” Fallon said, and hung up.
    Denton’s call to Arnold Long apparently caught the young man still asleep.
    â€œSorry to get you up,” Denton said.
    â€œIt’s all right. Mom fusses about me sleeping late anyway.” Long yawned. “What’s on your mind?”
    â€œI called you to settle an argument. You just got out of the Army, so I figured you’d know.”
    â€œWhat’s the argument?”
    â€œIsn’t master sergeant the highest enlisted rank in the Army? Fellow here says there are now two higher.”
    â€œHe’s right and he’s wrong,” the young playboy said. “There are three grades of master sergeant: classes seven, eight and nine. Nine’s top, but they’re all called master.”
    â€œThat makes it a standoff,” Denton laughed. “Thanks, Arnold.”
    â€œFor what?” Long said, and yawned again and hung up.
    Denton thought it over. The only other unattached males at the Wyatts’ had been Ralph Crosby and old Gerald Trevor. Of course, Angel could have taken off with a married man, but in view of her record it seemed unlikely. Besides, while as Mrs. James Denton she would sleep with anybody, the man she chose to run away with would have to be able to restore her marital status.
    Ralph Crosby … Could Crosby’s and Angel’s conduct Saturday night have been an act to fool everybody? Denton decided to check—just, he told himself, for the hell of it.
    â€œTed,” he said to his young reporter. “Run over to the D.A.’s office and see if anything popped over the weekend.”
    The district attorney’s office was in the county courthouse across the square. Winchester was back in fifteen minutes. There had been no serious criminal activity anywhere in the county over the weekend.
    â€œTalk to Crosby himself?”
    â€œSure. Boy, does he look hung over.”
    Leaving, Denton mused, Gerald Trevor.
    Something was wrong somewhere.
    Nevertheless, Denton phoned the Wyatt house. Trevor’s daughter answered.
    â€œThis is Jim Denton, Ardis. Either Norm or your pa around?”
    â€œWhy, no, Jim. They’ve gone up to the lodge to shoot grouse.”
    â€œThere’s no phone up there, is there?”
    â€œWell, I’m planning to drive up this evening. Can I deliver a message?”
    â€œNothing like that. It’s just that I’m short of news.”
    Ardis Wyatt laughed. “How’s this? They left here at five-thirty A.M. and weren’t gone two and a half hours when, lo and behold, they were back. Norm brought dad home for a change of clothes—he’d slipped fording a creek. Is that news, Jim?”
    â€œThis week it is,” Denton chuckled. “Thanks, Ardis. Let me know if anything else dramatic happens.”
    Now thoroughly challenged, Denton made a list from memory of every man who had been at the party. There had been nineteen, including himself and the five he had eliminated. He went over the list several times until he was satisfied he had left no one out. Then, since he had talked to George Guest on the phone some sixteen hours after the probable time of Angel’s elopement, he crossed the name Guest off the list.
    During the day, whenever he could snatch